


Waking Pies and Baking the Dead

by MajorAccent



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pushing Daisies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 20:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajorAccent/pseuds/MajorAccent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The facts were these: Finn could touch dead things and bring them back to life. Poe has recently been murdered. It’s been 19 years, 34 weeks, 1 day and 59 minutes since they have last seen each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waking Pies and Baking the Dead

**Author's Note:**

> It's my formal opinion that every fandom is in need of a Pushing Daisies AU.  
> I think this should be fairly easy to follow without having seen the show, but the basic premise is that The Piemaker can touch dead things and bring them back to life. There's limitations on this power, however such as:  
> 1\. The second time he touches them, they are then dead forever.  
> 2\. The dead thing only has a minute of borrowed time before something else has to die in order to keep them alive. Because the universe must strike a balance.

Finn takes a deep, centering breath as he looks down at Poe. He’s pale, the mortician makeup only doing so much for the pallid skin. “Okay,” he whispers to himself. “You can do this.” Reaching a hand out, he slowly touches Poe’s cheek.

Poe’s eyes snap open at the barest touch, making Finn flinch back. He reaches out, quick as lightning, and snatches Finn by the tie and jerks his head down, slamming it into the ridge of the coffin.

“Holy fuck,” Finn groans in pain, holding the bridge of his noise as he stumbles back. Poe’s already jumped out of the coffin and rounded the room to grab a chair, hefting it into the air as a barrier between himself and Finn. “Poe!” He yells. “Wait!”

Poe stops, still holding the chair. “Who the hell are you?” He demands with suspicion and Finn tries to not hold it against him, considering the man was murdered recently.

“Do you remember the kid that lived next door to you when your dad died?” Finn asks, arms raised pacifyingly, cringing at himself and how he phrased that.

Poe looks at him, confusion clear on his face until it clicks and he lets the chair fall to the floor with a thunk. “Finn?” He asks, a wide grin starting to spread on his face. “Oh my god, hey, buddy! Long time no see.”

“Yeah,” Finn agrees with a nod, standing straighter now that he’s no longer in danger of being hit with a chair. “Do you, uh. Do you know what’s happening right now?”

Poe shrugs. “I had a really weird dream,” he answers. “Like I was getting choked out by a plastic bag.”

Finn winces, trying to figure out how to tell Poe that’s exactly what happened.

“That is exactly what happened,” Finn says when nothing else comes to mind. Their time is short and Finn doesn’t necessarily have extra seconds for tact. “You were murdered,” he clarifies.

The smile falls off Poe’s face as he looks around the room, noticing the white flowers and the pictures of him and the coffin. “Oh,” Poe says, looking down at the suit he’s in.

Finn nods and glances out his wristwatch. “We have less than a minute left,” he says and Poe’s focus snaps back to him.

“For what?” Poe asks, coming around the chair and into Finn’s space.

“For you to tell me who your killer is,” Finn says, compensating and stepping back. “Before I have to—” He stutters and makes a vague hand gesture. “Unalive you? Again? Forever?”

Poe stops leaning into Finn’s space, eyes wide in realization. “Huh,” he exhales. “That’s a nice thought, buddy. But I didn’t see them.” He admits. “I was getting ice and they came up behind me, strangled me with a plastic bag, and then suddenly I’m here with you.”

Rey chooses that time to bang her palm against the room’s door, urgent and fast. “You done in there or what?” She demands, muffled by the thick wood.

“Just a second!” Finn yells back with annoyance, before looking back at Poe.

Poe gives him a brittle smile. “My time up?” He guesses.

“I’m sorry,” Finn replies, hands balled into fists and close at his sides. He doesn’t want to do this, but he knows too well about the consequences if he doesn’t adhere to the minute rule.

Poe shakes his head. “I get it,” he replies. “I just—” he shrugs. “Thanks for calling me Poe again,” he says with a shy, private smile. “No one’s done that since…” He trails off. “Since we were next door neighbors.”

Finn takes another deep breath, looking at Poe. Steeling himself to tell him: “Back then—when we were neighbors I had a gigantic crush on you.”

Poe’s smile becomes full of teeth at that, a genuine grin taking residence. “Yeah?” He asks.

“You were my first kiss,” Finn admits quietly, embarrassed as he ducks his head down to look at his shoes.

“You were mine, too.” Poe confirms easily.

Outside the door, Rey sighs loudly. “Goddammit,” she curses looking at her watch as she waits for Finn to wrap it up.

Finn knows that their time is coming to an end, the minute hand’s mechanism ticking away. “I’m sorry,” he repeats, drumming up the courage to take a step toward Poe.

“Stop me if this is weird,” Poe begins. “But is it too much to ask that you’re my last kiss, too?”

“No,” Finn shakes his head. “It’d be, uh. Symmetrical.”

Poe gives him a small, crooked smile and Finn leans into his space. Poe’s eyes close, preparing himself for Finn to kiss him and for his last minute of life to end.

Finn looks over his face, tries to force himself to bridge the gap. Tries to remind himself that for Poe to live, someone else has to die. Tries to remind himself that there’s roughly only fifteen seconds left.

“If you don’t want to kiss me, it’s fine.” Poe says, eyes blinking open. “I just thought—”

“No, I want to, I just.” Finn starts and stops, pulling back. “What if you didn’t have to be dead…?”

Poe snorts. “That’d be ideal,” he says mildly, undercutting his happiness.

“Okay,” Finn nods in a rush. “Sure.” He shoves his hands into his pocket and tries to ignore the voice in his head tell him that this is a bad idea. “No one can know, though.” Finn motions to the coffin. “Can you hide in there for a bit?”

Poe nods eagerly. “Yeah,” he agrees with a laugh and hops back in.

“Sorry about this,” Finn says as he grabs the lid. “I’ll be back for you,” he promises. “But until then, can you keep still in here?”

Poe gives him a salute and wink, and Finn gently closes the coffin on him.

“Oh, fuck,” Finn whispers to himself, already knowing what Rey’s going to say. “Okay, stay calm.”

“I am calm,” Poe tells him from the inside.

“I’m talking to myself,” Finn replies and smooths his hands over his suit jacket, taking another breath. He walks toward the door in stilted steps, and opens the door to meet up with Rey.

“Well?” She demands when she finally sees him.

“Doesn’t know,” Finn answers without thinking. “Didn’t know,” he corrects too quickly. “Said that they came up behind him and he didn’t see anything, so.”

Rey stares at him, her mouth scrunched up in thought. “Why are you sweating?” She demands.

“Am I sweating?” Finn’s voice cracks. He tugs at the collar of his pressed shirt, feeling the cotton cling to his shoulders and neck because of his sweat. “It’s a little warm in here and I’m wearing like three layers,” he hisses and takes off the jacket.

Rey cocks her head, and Finn knows she’s gone into full on investigator mode. “Why’s your eye twitching?” She asks, pinning him with her gaze.

“My eye’s twitching?” Finn questions, fighting down the urge to touch his face and see if it’s true.

“When people aren’t being honest, they have a tell.” Rey hums in reply. “Like an eye twitch. Like the twitch _your_ eye has right now.”

Finn shrugs and ignores the bead of sweat he can feel crawling down the line of his back. “Anxiety,” he answers, which isn’t far from the truth. “I’m thinking of staying for the service, but I haven’t seen Poe’s family since I was a kid. Maybe it’s too weird for me to go?”

Rey’s hard exterior falls away as she frowns and reaches for Finn, touching his arm in comfort. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I don’t think it’d be weird for you to attend the service. Poe was your friend, after all.”

“Yeah,” Finn nods with a jagged sigh. “For a handful of years at least.”

Rey offers him a sad smile. “Do you want me to stay?” She gently offers.

Finn shakes his head, feeling guilty for lying to Rey. “No, no thank you,” he declines in a rush. “I can do this by myself. I don’t want you to waste even more of your Sunday afternoon. I can take the bus back, I’ll be fine.”

She lets her arm drop, giving a final squeeze to his wrist. “Call me if you want a ride, okay?” She tells him.

“Right,” Finn says and watches her walk towards the exit, waiting for a handful of seconds before his shoulders drop and he has to lean against the wall as he wheezes.

In the solitude of the empty hallway, Finn looks both ways to check that the coast is clear before he opens the door to the show room.

And sees that it’s completely empty.

**Author's Note:**

> I am over [here](http://acespaceacepilot.tumblr.com/) on tumblr, if you want to yell at me or talk about StormPilot.


End file.
